WHEEZ-IE
Wheez-ie, real name Matt Mauldin, is a Houston-raised, Los Angeles-based DJ, producer and audio engineer. With a fervent passion for the craft and culture of electronic music deeply ingrained in his artistry, Wheez-ie has dedicated more than half his life to continually setting his own bar high as a virtuosic mixing DJ and masterfully utilizing different facets of his robust production style to push boundaries. From the onset of his career, Wheez-ie has balanced expanding his musical knowledge with pursuing a multifaceted creative path, determined to establish himself equally on the decks and in the studio. Over time, and with genuine care, taking a multi-pronged approach has led him to develop ways to ensure his distinctive self-expressive signature is effectively woven into every track and DJ set alike.
Growing up as the son of two distinguished music educators, as a kid, Wheez-ie conned his parents into letting him try out the demo of Fruity Loops 2.5 that came with the audio editing software his father used for work. While only 11 at the time, he recognized from that point onward that experimenting with loading samples and making beats was going to be much more than a short-lived hobby, allowing an earnest obsession with dance music to organically take shape. In tandem with being classically trained on the oboe and playing the jazz bass, Wheez-ie immersed himself with a wide variety of music, becoming a lifelong student of genres such as drum'n'bass, jungle, house, techno, industrial, breakbeat and Southern rap. He first began releasing solo material as a teenager, appearing on a breakcore compilation in 2007 and laying the groundwork for his discography to simultaneously explore disparate sounds and defy genre tropes from the very beginning.
In 2009, Wheez-ie relocated to Boston to study at the renowned Berklee College of Music, with his time on the East coast influential for a multitude of reasons, including working to become a regional fixture as a touring DJ and, with the blessing of DJ Rashad, putting out his debut EP, All Werked Up, on Brighton's Well Rounded. In the years that followed, Wheez-ie further deepened his dexterity as a meticulous producer, with his catalog growing to include releases on labels such as Fools Gold, Embassy and Nest HQ, as well as inspiring the launch of Southern Belle Recordings. Wheez-ie’s independent label, whose inaugural release slot was gratefully reserved for the late DJ Rashad in 2014, became another pathway to express support for those in the trenches alongside him and amplify incredible, yet hard-to-categorize, tunes, including his release Missed Connections (2015) and Ali Berger’s Raise//Anxiety (2020). Such foundational values continue to carry over into his DJing and producing today, acting as a larger guiding force as he steadily expounds upon and subverts multidimensional genres through his work.
Garnering prolific support and recognition from an array of DJs around the world, his tracks have since been remixed by artists such as DJ Assault and Salva, as well as have been played by prominent forces such as DJ Rashad, Joe Nice, Mala, Ben Klock, Sherelle, A-Sides, the Blessed Madonna, Nina Kraviz, Randomer, Kode 9, Machinedrum and Skrillex, to name a few. With notable milestones including being accepted into the now-defunct Red Bull Music Academy and broadening his engineering clientele to span the likes of Björk, Party Favor, Tommy Genesis and Mick Jenkins, Wheez-ie continues to hone his craft and grow as an artist. The year 2020 saw releases on THEM (Negative Zone EP), ONLY HUMAN / WEAPONIZED (Craigie Knowes' C-No-Evil) and Fat Kid On Fire's 10-year anniversary compilation, showcasing how he can hold court in different music communities without compromising authenticity.
With his writing often regarded as being ahead of its time and expertly referential, Wheez-ie’s strengths include drawing from his breadth of musical study and practice to test his own limits as a producer, resulting in tracks that are as polished as they are unpredictable. As exemplified through his dexterous DJ sets, multifarious production and in the artists he collaborates with, Wheez-ie turns to experimentation to further find his voice, helping him garner a reputation as a musician dedicated to elevating the art itself. With no intention of letting his foot off the gas, Wheez-ie is welcoming the next chapter of his career with his now-notorious blend of gratitude and both middle fingers up.